Improved paint or coating for ships  bottoms



GR Idle-899 55 sea was cow.

7 Search Room @atwt 63min.

LEVIN ALBERT MESSINGER, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLYANIA.

Letters Patent No. 101,899, dated April 12, 1870.

IMPROVED PAINT OR COATING FOR SHIPS BOTTOMS.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of thesame.

I, LEvIN ALBERT Misssixosn, of Philadelphia, county of Philadelphia,State of Pennsylvania, have invented an Improved Paint or Coating forthe Bottoms of Vessels, &c., of which the following is a specification.

General Description.

My improved paint is composed of arsenite of copper, verdigris, sugar oflead, South Carolina or other vegetable tar, and turpentine.

For the first of these ingredients, ordinary arsenite of copper may beused, but I prefer to prepare it in the following manner: I

Arsenic and an alkali (potassium, for instance,) are dissolved togetherby the aid of heat, and with the liquid thus obtained is mixed a properquantity of sulphate of copper, (blue vitriol,) previously dissolved inwater. A precipitate results from this mixture,

which is the arsenite of copper. To make one gallon of theimprovedpaint, the several ingredients are mixed in about the followingproportions:

' Arsenite of copper, two pounds; verdigris, one pound; sugar of lead,one-fourth pound; South (Jarolina or other vegetable tar, two quarts;turpentine, one and one-half pint.

In mixing the above, the tar is thinned by means of the turpentine,after which the first three ingredicuts are added, either separately orafter having been ground together.

In applying the. paint to the bottom of a vessel or other structure,the. surface of the same. should be perfectly dry and clean, and allparticles of old paint scraped or otherwise removed from the. same. The

paint, when thus applied, will dry qnic and be perfectly water-proof;will protect ships bottoms or other structures against the destructiveaction of worms, and will also effectually prevent the adhesion ofbarnaclcs and sea-grasses to the same.

I am aware that both copper and arsenic have been used in protectivecompositions for ships bottoms, 850., for the purpose of destroying andpreventing the adhesion ot' animalculac to the same, but suchingredients have never been combined with sugar of lead and tar, theformer of which is a most active poison, and aids the arsenic and copperin destroying both animal and vegetable deposits, and has alsowell-known drying properties, which render it of value in the paint. Thelatter ingredient, the tar, is used on account of its adhesive andwater-prooiing qualities.

The turpentine serves merely as a drier and solvent for the tar, and, ifany additional drier is required, a small proportion of Japan orequivalent substance may be added in mixing the paint.

Without confining myself to the exact proportions stated of the severalingredients,

I claim- A paint or coating for ships bottoms, &c., composed of arseniteof copper, verdigris, sugar of lead, South Carolina or other vegetabletar, and turpentine.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

LEVIN ALBERT MESSISGER.

Witnesses:

FRANK B. RICHARDS, Louis Boswnnn.

